How Kimberly-Clark is turning ideas into innovation
On this episode of The CMO Show we talk to Gabbi Davidson, Marketing Director – Personal Care at Kimberly-Clark: the company behind iconic brands such as Huggies, Kleenex, U by Kotex, and Poise.
Gabbi chats with Mark about how Kimberly Clark’s core purpose – better care for a better world – underpins both product development and some leading-edge marketing campaigns you’re going to love.
There’s a lot of talk about change in today’s business climate. It can be as grandiose as changing the world, or as simple as a small action that changes someone’s life for the better.
Love it, hate it, or fear it – to change means to innovate and make a difference however small it may be.
Gabbi Davidson is Marketing Director for the Personal Care division at Kimberly-Clark, a global manufacturer of personal care products that is no stranger to change — whether that’s changing nappies or changing attitudes toward some common but often unspoken hygiene issues.
“In the fields we work in, it’s about bringing the conversation to light and making people aware of it,” says Gabbi. “Stigmas exist, even with issues that are so commonplace, and we work to rip that stigma apart at the seams.”
Recent campaigns show the organisation is making some excellent headway, but it’s a gradual process that involves a lot of listening to the customer and challenging conventional wisdom.
“Being plugged in is around the customer. We listen to our consumers, and we make sure our testing involves the consumer – the customer experience is never ignored,” says Gabbi.
“It’s about giving the product to customers to use and to document exactly what happens, what works, what they like, what they don’t like. That’s the data that matters to us.”
We thought we knew a lot about Kimberly-Clark, but we learnt a whole heap more through this conversation. Dive in for a listen!
Credits
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The CMO Show production team
Producers – Rian Newman & Pamela Obeid
Audio Engineers – Ed Cheng & Daniel Marr
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Transcript:
Mark Jones
Hello, Mark Jones here – you're listening to The CMO Show, a marketing podcast made for and by marketing professionals here at ImpactInstitute.
There’s a lot of talk about change. Everybody’s an advocate for positive change: and that can be as grandiose as changing the world, or as simple as a small action that makes someone’s day.
Love it, hate it, or fear it – to change means to make a difference in someone’s life, however small or it may be.
And some organisations know this better than others, so let’s meet one of them.
In today’s episode of The CMO Show, we're joined by Gabbi Davidson, Marketing Director – Personal Care at Kimberly-Clark.
Kimberly-Clark encompasses brands such as Huggies, U by Cotex, and Kleenex - personal care products designed for all stages of life.
They’re also consumer brands which constantly innovate and experiment – and that’s always a great challenge for marketers.
So, I spoke with Gabbi about how Kimberly-Clark works to make lives better by focusing on issues which affect everyday people like you and me.
Gabbi also told me about some new campaigns which will breathe new life into some pretty conventional products.
It’s a great chat so let’s jump right in.
Mark Jones
Thank you so much for joining me today.
Gabbi Davidson
Hi, Mark. It's a pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me.
Mark Jones :
Kimberly-Clark is a fascinating organisation to me, and I just want to jump into a bit of history and bit of background setting before we get into a little bit of your story. Because I was reading in a book some time ago, this storied organisation, which was founded in 1872, was famous for building paper mills. So this is sort of in the early days. Its corporate identity was shaped around making paper, and as simple as that sounds. But then in 1991, Kimberly-Clark and the New York Times company sold their jointly owned paper mill in Canada. And that was a big turning point in this organisation. And that story has always fascinated me because this is sacrificing the proverbial sacred cow, changing its identity from being a manufacturer to a marketer, a product developer re-imagining itself in the mind of the customer.
So that background was one of the reasons I was excited to have a chat with you and I think there's a lot to learn in the marketing strategy space. So just curious on your reaction there. You've been at this company a long time, it's a really fascinating part of the Kimberly-Clark story.
Gabbi Davidson
Yeah, I have been at Kimberly-Clark for some time and it is an incredible company. I think when you think about even tissues, they're such a base product. But actually it was Kimberly-Clark who invented the tissue with Kleenex, an iconic brand name around the world. But as you said, very much Kimberly-Clark's focus has shifted over the years from just being a producer of products to a marketer and beyond. I think if we think around our approach now, our purpose at Kimberly-Clark is better care for a better world. So it's still providing those essentials. We actually provide essentials to a quarter of the world's population every day, but it's going beyond that. So it's a genuine focus on communities and people and making a positive impact in the world.
Mark Jones
So how would you describe the culture then in that context? This is a company that has a social conscience in that regard.
Gabbi Davidson
Yeah the culture at Kimberly-Clark impacted by our brands and the impact that they have on consumers. So if we think around some of the iconic brands around Kleenex and Huggies, huge brands that we really interact with people through their lives. So from birth with Huggies all the way until as people get older in some of our incontinence brands like Depend if we think around the purpose of better care for a better world and providing those essentials and beyond, that's where it really impacts our culture.
Mark Jones
So it sounds like it's attracted a number of people who can like yourself see that bigger picture, and I imagine that must be hugely gratifying. As you say, the ability to retain people in that context is really important.
Gabbi Davidson
It is, absolutely. And I think it is around the amazing innovation that also comes in this company now. So you touched on the evolution of the company before. So as we've evolved from just paper to bringing groundbreaking innovation in some of our categories, that is also what helps motivate people internally. So I think the combination of the incredible innovation and also the impact on consumers. So hearing a consumer within incontinence actually talk about it sounds like something that doesn't sound very sexy, but actually you hear the genuine impact that these products can have on their lives where previously they wouldn't want to go outside and now actually they can live life like they would want it to. And therefore that really does make an impact on those internally who see that and see what they're doing every day is beyond just making an incontinence product, a nappy, a tissue.
Mark Jones
That's right. And there's a dignity story there that I think is really, really important. If we think about your career here. So give us a sense of your time through the organisation. How did you end up as marketing director?
Gabbi Davidson
Yes, I started in the very junior in my career. I was drawn to Kimberly-Clark from the brands and I think from there I've stayed because of the challenge. One of the beautiful things that Kimberly-Clark is we do work across different categories and with that comes not only different consumers but different challenges and different focuses. And that has been a great learning experience to be able to get different things from each role and still stay within that one amazing company which I've grown so passionate about because of the brands that we work on. So I've kind of worked around the different brands and across functions as well to get different experiences and then found myself in the marketing director role.
Mark Jones
Congratulations. These days, I'm sounding old, but you don't meet so many people that stick around. It's the era of multiple careers, multiple roles, very short tenures, and one of the values of a longer tenure is the ability to bring some of that institutional knowledge to what you do to think with the bigger picture. And I just think that's awesome. So when you think then about applying some of that experience, how do you approach your role? What do you enjoy the most about it?
Gabbi Davidson
I feel very lucky to love my role and I have my entire career at Kimberly-Clark. What I think has been super beneficial, being in the one place for so long, other networks I've been able to create and therefore the transparent conversations that I can have across functions, across teams to get to a better outcome. But also I think what's really important in marketing is consistency. Consistency within brands to be able to build brands over a longer term. And if I think around a brand like Huggies, where actually some of the experiences that I learned from a lot of great marketers in my junior years and worked with a lot of great people and that's really stuck with me.
And if I think around how I work with the teams now and what we try and hold true to the brand while evolving other aspects of it, I think that's where some of the benefit of staying so long and actually tapping into some of the knowledge that I was able to get back then has been able to pay off for us.
Mark Jones
What would you say is the biggest shift in consumer behaviour that you've noticed in that time?
Gabbi Davidson
I think we've witnessed many different shifts in consumer behaviour and the retail environment as well. I think the retail environment actually is one shift in itself. Our channel mix has changed over time, so as e-commerce has grown and the focus on how we actually speak to consumers as well is one major change that has evolved over the years. Consumers also demand much more from brands. So it's no longer about looking at an advert and expecting a brand to deliver them everything. But actually one big change I think has been the way we actually deliver support to consumers. So if I think around what that looks like with U by Kotex, that is going way beyond just giving a period product in beautiful, bold packaging to push against category conventions. Kimberly-Clark is the only period care brand in Australia with a period tracker app.
So consumers and younger people can actually track their period and understand when it can come and for other reasons also the shift into education. So in twofold, really it's about how we can deliver back to the communities by ensuring that we are improving the access to period care through partnering with Share the Dignity, and also through several governments to provide free period care in schools and then also supporting that with education. So we do a lot around education in period care to ensure that as a syllabus it's actually well-supported. So that conversation starts early as well. So it goes way beyond products.
Mark Jones
And the brand represents something over time, which you reference the dignity component and you touching on I guess a broader story there in terms of feminine hygiene and the way that it's been perceived and even politically, I think you're sort of touching on some of those issues. And so the expectation is that the brand is part of a conversation and I imagine that must have been quite a change. How do you stay plugged into where it's going? What are the sort of the inputs that you draw on? How do you learn from customers? What's that sort of cycle of learning and iterating and turning that into the next campaign? What does that look like for you?
Gabbi Davidson
We listen to customers in many different ways because as you mentioned, being plugged in is around the customer. So many people would say that their companies are customer obsessed or consumer obsessed. And I think at Kimberly-Clark certainly that is one thing that holds very true right from the very top all the way down the levels, and that's across functions as well.
One thing that has been in our DNA, in Kimberly-Clark's DNA for some time is listening to consumers and also testing product because that's really where the magic happens, but also then looking forward to project where those needs and directions are going to end up as well. So as we are testing our product, we test tens of thousands of nappies, for example, for Huggies every year with consumers to ensure that the quality is delivering and also to understand where the deficiencies are and where the innovation is required as well. So it's really about staying in touch with them and talking about it, but also ensuring that the consumer experience is looked at.
Mark Jones
Look, I'm smiling because I've raised four babies of my own and I don't even want to think about what testing Huggies looks like, but I am curious to know how you do that without the detail.
Gabbi Davidson
The testing of Huggies is actually quite rigorous. So we have a lab in our office and we have testing that happens every single day of ourselves, of competitors. So there are lots of lab tests, but actually it's about giving the product to customers to use and to document exactly what happens, what works, what doesn't they like, what they don't. And a lot of that data then comes in and then we look at that as well. So the current, we have literally last week Huggies launched a new zinc enriched layer, which helps protect baby's skin against irritation. And this is absolutely groundbreaking in the category, and that was five years in the making. So our local product development team here in Australia actually developed that with a company Textor in Melbourne. And that has been tested with multiple babies over the years and multiple lab tests, a clinical trial. So it's clinically proven to actually help protect irritation and then that will culminates in a launch last week where we can bring our best ever protection to babies in Australia.
Mark Jones
Fantastic. Well, I got to say, and I'm just going to take a risk, and I may look a bit silly here, but I've always been fascinated in another category, which is toothbrushes. I mean, how can they keep reinventing the toothbrush? They literally do it all the time. You see these new things that they've been working on with the bumps and texture and materials, and that's just personally like a fascination for me. I didn't realise that was happening in the nappy category.
Mark Jones
So when I think about sustainability, it's got to be a big part of the nappy story for Huggies in particular. So what are you doing to not just improve the benefits for the babies, which is important, but also for the environment? What are you doing there?
Gabbi Davidson
Sustainability is a huge focus overall for us at Kimberly-Clark, including on Huggies. So certainly locally and around the world there are efforts to reduce plastic and any materials we can. However, the caveat is to ensure that quality is not compromised and that is number one. So last year Kimberly-Clark actually was launched a first in its kind nappy loop recycling program in South Australia. And that is actually to look at the full lifecycle of nappies because at this point in time, disposable nappies are the major product used for babies and that is really around the leakage protection, the dryness for the skin as well. So while this is the case and while we all work towards a more sustainable solution, our other focus is to ensure that from a full lifecycle perspective that we are looking for solutions to help in that space. So we're so excited to see that pilot launch and do quite well and are working on next steps to scale it up.
Mark Jones
Yeah, that's great. So I'm getting a quick sense of how diverse your role is. There's a product marketing component and then there's this external storytelling. Is that fair? Or how has your team organised? How do you do this? Because in other organisations I talk to, they're very, very distinct, quite often different tribes.
Gabbi Davidson
That is one of the best things about Kimberly-Clark actually is that our roles are very, very diverse. Part of that is we are luckily lucky enough to be tapped into a global network. Kimberly-Clark is a global company, so we are able to leverage innovation comms globally, but actually we're quite locally empowered. So a lot of that we do ourselves everything from taking from the globe, but then working on strategy and product development all the way through marketing, communication down to execution and partnering with our sales and our retail partners. So it is a very diverse role. Sustainability, social impact comes into that as well as do the other elements.
From a team structure perspective, we do have brand teams here. Kimberly-Clark also has product development teams locally in Australia. So we are developing for the local market as well as working with our global counterparts. And we also have a digital e-commerce team supporting as well. So there are specialists, but from a marketing perspective, some of the beauty of our roles is that it is very diverse. And again, I think that's one of the benefits and why you do see people staying as well.
Mark Jones
Yeah, fantastic. Yeah, no shortage of things to do. Now if I can think about the story that you tell and the purpose, there's a campaign or a theme if you like, of find the ways to make lives better, and I think you touched on that social purpose. Just briefly, how would you describe the purpose of the organisation?
Gabbi Davidson
Yeah, so the purpose of Kimberly-Clark is better care for a better world. So this is the essential products themselves, but it goes way beyond as well. So I think if I can take Poise, so a light bladder leakage product as an example, this is where we very much are all about making sure we have the best quality product, but it's actually about breaking the stigma, which exists around that category. So incontinence is not spoken about very much. And if I think around a campaign that we launched just a couple of weeks ago around Poise Pledge and the Poised Pelvic Floor Hub, this was really tapping into that thought that one in three women in Australia actually experience light bladder leakage and yet almost a quarter haven't even discussed it with anyone in their lives at all. So this was about elevating that conversation. That person or people with the condition can generally feel quite isolated and alone and it can really impact them.
So by talking about the condition and the fact that it's so, so common and that there is support out there that can actually start to have an impact on the person's mental health as well as their physical ability to actually go out and live their life. Along with that campaign, we actually launched a pelvic floor hub, which was a 12-week free programme developed with a women's health physiotherapist. So again, if we think around better Care for a better world, it's actually providing tools which can not only help manage their condition but actually improve it.
Mark Jones
What sort of results have you started to see coming through from that?
Gabbi Davidson
It's been very positive in the initial initial period. So we've seen a lot of people sign up to the hub and actually take advantage of the programme. A lot of positive press come through. And I think the thing that impacts me the most as well is just hearing the verbatim and the stories, and then even come through to me personally on I did not know that this condition was so common, I'm going to pass this on to my mom, my sister, my friend. Those are the types of things that not just externally but very much internally really motivate the team as well.
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Mark Jones
Now what about this other campaign - Sister Scrubs for Huggies that was designed to promote the uniform created for the First Nation midwives, which is fascinating. Tell us a bit about that.
Gabbi Davidson
So this was born out of a longstanding partnership between Huggies and the Rhodanthe Lipsett Indigenous Midwives Foundation. And this was about really step changing the support. So with First Nations communities, having midwives who are from their community and understand their traditions around the birth, it's really important for both the mother and there are really clear health benefits to the baby linked to this. So at Huggies we really believe that giving every baby the best start in life is the most important thing that we can do to help support. And so in this case, it's really about supporting indigenous midwives. So this campaign actually look to bring uniforms. So number one, it was about driving awareness of the importance of indigenous midwives and actually advocating, but also raising money as well to support the foundation and support many midwives going through the program to enable that reach as far as possible to the communities.
Mark Jones
So there's a real cultural aspect to that in terms of really listening to community. We know that's very much part of the national story at the moment with the YES campaign. And I imagine that must've been a fascinating thing to develop. Where did the idea come from?
Gabbi Davidson
The idea had come from many years working together, so this had been more of a silent partnership in the past and like I said, there was really a need to elevate it. So I think between the Rhodanthe team and the internal team who were very passionate about this cause teaming up with the sales team and actually it was a partnership with the partnership in Coles as well. And so I think with that it was like how do we dream bigger and make more of an impact and ongoing impact? So with the uniforms, they're worn loud and proudly in hospitals and it's all about driving that awareness and making a bigger impact than we had previously been able to do.
Mark Jones
So if I connect a couple of dots here, so we've got the Sister Scrubs campaign, Huggies Sister Scrubs, we've got the Poise Pledge campaign, which we just spoke about, and then you mentioned the U by Kotex, What's Happening to You school program, it seems in each of those three campaigns, program, whatever you may call them, they are all about tackling issues that don't see the light of day or there's a clear opportunity to elevate something that's really important to people at a personal level. Is that an intentional thing or it's just sort of a byproduct of how you guys think?
Gabbi Davidson
It is definitely an intentional move. I think of course we want to be doing work which resonates with our customer and we want to be doing things that actually matter to them. So very often in the categories we work in, it is about bringing the conversation to light and making people aware of it because part of the way to get there is just ensuring that these things are spoken about, particularly if we think around period care and the stigma that has existed with that in the past and also around incontinence. And again, the stigma which exists despite the fact that it is so common and it's actually quite a normal part of life.
Mark Jones
What have you learned from doing this work that you think might encourage your colleagues in the marketing space?
Gabbi Davidson
I think what I've learned that it is very easy to come to work every day when you have a passion for something and that actually comes about impact to people as opposed to just making money or selling products. So I think that is definitely one thing. And then the second thing really would be curiosity and learning. So being open to learning new things at every stage in your career and applying that across every aspect of marketing beyond just advertising or product development, I think that's when it can start to come together in a really nice way.
Mark Jones
Yeah. What about storytelling? And the reason I ask is that that's an undercurrent I've picked up here too with the way that you as a brand are elevating social issues. There's an expectation that brands not only reflect the narrative in this case an unspoken issue, but they can help lead and guide. So there's actually a responsibility that comes with that storytelling. What's been a lesson that you've learned along the way in that context?
Gabbi Davidson
I would say, I think that was the first thing that popped to mind is that it is something that continually evolves, but I feel that the success in storytelling is about bringing the voice of the consumer to the forefront. And again, I think around how powerful the footage for the Poise Pledge or the Poise Pelvic Floor Hub was, and that was about hearing real stories and real impacts in these people's lives. So actually the storytelling becomes powerful when it's real and it's real when it's out of a customer's mouth or someone's mouth who is actually going through one of these challenges or has real feelings about whatever you're talking about.
Mark Jones
And I was going to say the emotional aspect of it. So when you hear someone's story and this is just not a campaign, it's not a sort of rational sort of thing, it's actually deeply felt and we know that to be true in all aspects of marketing, but there's no denying the reality of it in this context. Is there?
Gabbi Davidson
No, that's exactly right.
Mark Jones
What impact has that had on you in terms of, we know that you've been there for a while, but do you find yourself being changed by these stories or how does it shape the way you think of your role? There's sort of a bigger picture here as a leader, and I imagine some of those stories that you hear must have an important inspiring impact on you.
Gabbi Davidson
I think the stories have had a different impact on me at different stages in my career. So at the beginning it was more around driving the passion and then once that was well established and you couldn't rip it out of me if you tried, it's been more about probably as I've matured a little bit as well, seeking a deeper understanding and actually understanding that even though that's one story, that's not going to be the same as somebody else. So seeking, I guess that diversity within the stories, because even as we hear people talk about motherhood, for example, with hug is that story of motherhood and the challenges that have faced and there is a universal truth in how changed your life is after having a baby, but that one story can look very, very different for many people. So I think that has been something for me that continues to make me seek more stories and more insight from different people because I think the more you listen, the more you realise that there is a diverse perspective out there.
Mark Jones
From a impact measurement perspective, or even just the campaign measurement perspective, what are the tools and the approaches that you're using to gauge success?
Gabbi Davidson
From an impact perspective, we do both set ourselves high targets to ensure that we are actually making an impact in people's lives. And we do measure, and I would actually say we also look at the impact on culture as well. So internally, the impact on how strong our purpose is actually really important and it is what can drive a really engaged team as they're genuinely invested in what we're doing from a metrics perspective on our brands, we use lots of different things to measure it. So we use indicators of the actual campaigns as their live, so realtime indicators of how people are engaging with the content or the message, and then longer term metrics as well. So brand equity metrics as you would across any type of campaign or brand building.
Mark Jones
Yeah, so funnels, share of voice, so on and so on, all the usual. From a social impact perspective, and this is probably me with my thinking about some of my friends in the advisory space here, but we spend a lot of time thinking about those indicators you mentioned. So quality of life metrics for example. Do you have any sense of goals, long-term goals that you see for these customers and how that aligns with your brand? Is there a particular quality of life goals that you could say are shaping the way you do your job?
Gabbi Davidson
So I would say the metrics and the targets that we have from a Kimberly-Clark perspective on impact to consumers and these are very much global, regional and local goals. They do ensure that we are looking at this stuff as far as what shapes our job, I would actually say that is probably more intrinsic to the brand purposes. This stuff is not able to be removed from the brands and we're kind of not doing it to line up with those KPIs. It's actually the way we build the brand. So for example, on U by Kotex, ensuring that periods never get in the way of a women's progress that guides the brand and that is inherent in the DNA of the brand since launch and it was actually launched here in Australia. So I don't think it's actually about those metrics driving the brand. I think it's about what we're trying to do as the brand and how they actually impact the metrics.
Mark Jones
And being able to stay in touch with them over time, as you were referencing earlier. Now, what's next on the radar? What are the new product opportunities or campaigns on the horizon? What should we be looking out for and cheering you on LinkedIn and other places as we see them coming up?
Gabbi Davidson
We've just had a very exciting few months launching, as I said, the Huggies innovation last week and Poise Pledge a couple of weeks before that. So I think in the future what you'll see from Kimberly-Clark is more in the space of innovation with products and continuing to make those products and those experiences better than ever, but also more in category first support beyond products. So as we spoke about the pelvic floor hub or the period planet education game, so how we support consumers beyond just product. So very much there and hopefully what you'll see is the plan to scale up the nappy loop pilot as well. So as we make more progress in the space of nappy recycling, that definitely in the sustainability area is where there'll be news from Kimberly-Clark as well.
Mark Jones
That's great. As you said before, there's a pretty diverse set of, I guess tasks and strategies and opportunities for you in your role, so it's fascinating to get a little bit of a glimpse into that. Last question. If there was one thing, one great experience that you've had in working with customers that you think a story that you could share with a marketer listening, what would that be? What was that sort of one moment or an aha moment that you had or a great experience that you think really is a lesson or a point of inspiration for us?
Gabbi Davidson
The stories that have stuck with me the most are ones where it's really connected the consumer to the work that I've been doing and it's given me real reason to continue doing that work. And just, one example is a couple of years ago, the Huggies team launched a beautiful campaign which was all around be comfortable in your skin, really rooted in the insight that parents are really, really tough on themselves, but actually they're the only ones that are tough on themselves. When it was held up through the lens of their families, there was so much love and saying that they were the most amazing parents that there were.
And just really seeing the parents' reactions to this, and at the time I just had a child, so I was quite emotional to it myself, was just incredible. It really made a difference to these parents when they saw how much love there was. So I think when you can do that and when you can really see that the work that you're working on is not just about selling a product, but actually if you are listening to your customer and then giving something that actually helps their life, that's what has helped inspire me.
Mark Jones
Yeah. Well I think that's a great point of inspiration. Thank you so much Gabby for sharing a bit of your story, for letting us get to know a bit about you and Kimberly-Clark and all the great work you guys are doing. So thanks again for being my guest today.
Gabbi Davidson
Thanks for having me.
Mark Jones
That was Gabbi Davidson from Kimberly-Clark. It’s safe to say that they’re making an impact on a global scale.
I like this idea of bringing light to issues that are often overshadowed or avoided. It’s a great strategy that seems good for growth and clearly makes people’s lives better.
This is also a story about keeping the customer right at the front and centre of your marketing, storytelling and product development. We talk about this idea often – the trick, it seems, is staying on this path over time.
Thank you for joining me on today’s episode – we'll see you next time.